Do battery powered watches wear out?

mtnbkr

mtnbkr

Joined
Aug 17, 2000
Messages
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I have had a Wenger Swiss Army watch for a bit over 6 years now. It seems to be going through batteries at an increasingly fast rate. The first battery lasted nearly 3 years, the second one 2 years, the third one 7 months, the fourth one 2 months, and the final one about 4 months.

What is happening?

Chris
 
mtnbkr, I wish I knew, this is the first that I've heard of such a thing. I've got a couple of Seikos nearly 15 yrs old that are still fine, and another around 5 yrs old, again, still okay.

I'd suspect it's time for a service call to Wenger and see what they think. I'm a recent fan of the Wengers, especially the titanium model, and would consider buying one, so I'd be curious how things work out.
 
Chris,
Despite the relative simplicity of a modern day quartz watch movement, there still exists a small gear train (often plastic or nylon) which is susceptible to contamination in the same manner as its much more complex fully mechanical counterpart. It may be possible that your watch's gears are not running quite as smoothly as they once did and that this added resistance is affecting your battery life. I suppose it may also be possible that some recently developed defect in the electronics of your movement is causing the battery to drain at an increased rate. This is obviously all speculation on my part, but the good news is that a brand new replacement movement for 95% of the quartz watches on the market today can be had for less than $20. If you can locate a reputable watchmaker it's possible that you could have your watch running as good as ever with a brand new movement for maybe $50 or $60 out the door.
 
Thanks guys. I think I'm going to let this be an opportunity to replace my watch. It's starting to show it's age anyway.

Chris
 
That's normal. Contacts tarnish and some analog quartz movements are lubricated, which means the oil thickens with age. (The ones that aren't are the ones with plastic gears -- they don't need lubrication but they wear out.) As Bronco already said the usual solution is to replace the movement.

I've sometimes had some success cleaning the contacts -- sometimes the battery contacts are visibly tarnished -- polish them with ultra-fine sandpaper.
 
Same thing happened to me.

The other thing to consider is where you buy batteries. I used to have watch batteries changed at a podunk jewelry store for $2.

From the dust on the packages they have probably been on the shelf for 10 years. :(
 
I had one of those nifty Casio computer jobs that I loved; you could store all sorts of phone numbers, passwords, etc. in it.

After six years, the little buttons began to wear out, much like keyboard button contacts will.
 
Mtnbkr, its time to invest in a fine automatic watch..something you can treasure for the rest of your life. Have a look at a Sinn EZM3......You will not regret it.
 
The Sinns are too rich for my blood right now. I've been eying an Invicta 8926 though. They seem like good watches.

Chris
 
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